I used to live in South Gate, a neighborhood in L.A. We were the only family in the neighborhood that didn’t speak Spanish. Even the local pizza places didn’t understand us well enough to order from. We didn’t complain, we were the white people who chose to move there and we were fine with it. But we’re talking about a neighborhood full of homeowners, not undocumented immigrants. Some of them were in the U.S. for generations.
And then there’s Florida:
First settled by the Spanish in the 16th century, 19% of Floridians now speak Spanish, which is the most widely taught second language. In Miami, 67% of residents spoke Spanish as their first language in 2000.
In addition, there are several other major cities in Florida with a sizable percentage of the population able to speak Spanish, most notably Tampa (18%) and Orlando (16.6%).
The U.S. has no official language. Spanish is one of many spoken in the U.S. A large proportion of the U.S. used to be Mexico. Of course we have a ton of people here who speak Spanish.
Come to Miami. Any place you go can speak to you in Spanish… You don’t have to be in Hialeah or South Miami. I’m not fluent, but I get by, I will make it a point to use Spanish as much as possible from now on.
As of 2023, there were over 42 million Spanish speakers in America.
I used to live in South Gate, a neighborhood in L.A. We were the only family in the neighborhood that didn’t speak Spanish. Even the local pizza places didn’t understand us well enough to order from. We didn’t complain, we were the white people who chose to move there and we were fine with it. But we’re talking about a neighborhood full of homeowners, not undocumented immigrants. Some of them were in the U.S. for generations.
And then there’s Florida:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language_in_the_United_States#Florida
The U.S. has no official language. Spanish is one of many spoken in the U.S. A large proportion of the U.S. used to be Mexico. Of course we have a ton of people here who speak Spanish.
But, you know, “they all look and sound alike.”
Come to Miami. Any place you go can speak to you in Spanish… You don’t have to be in Hialeah or South Miami. I’m not fluent, but I get by, I will make it a point to use Spanish as much as possible from now on.
I’m sure that bill is just around the corner
Almost certainly. They’ve been wanting it for years now.